I think you need a good commercial mower. I got a John Deere LX280 Lawn Tractor 48" deck non commercial. If you are looking for a good commercial mower I think you could go off with a gravely 260 z. My, uncle had this mower and it rocked nice zero turn capability for your large properties. But, the best commercial mower you should get a Toro Grandstand here's the link to check them out.http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU1FDzf0YMo Hoped this helped!

Travis

Thanks Travis,
As soon as I can afford to get a comm model Ill keep that in mind. Right now Im gonna have to make it work with the $$ i have available.
I appreciate the advice

The very fist problem I see with your post is -going to home depot to buy a zero turn! Go to a cammercial mower supplier and a real mower. It cost a lot, it lasts longer, cuts better, cuts faster, and is in the long run cheaper.

Steve,
If you had read my original thread you would have seen that money was an issueright now. So you saying the first problem with my thread is going to Lowes to get a Z-turn tells me you didnt bother to read the whole thing

The best advice I can give you is too not put yourself into debt to the point that every cent you make the first year or so goes to paying off your debt...It takes a few years to get a business rolling and there will be many times you feel like throwing in the towel....

Start with what you can afford regardless of what other's tell you to buy...I started with all used equipment and I still have much of it...I just bought my first new zero turn this year and this will be my third year in business for myself....

Get out there and meet people !!! hand out business cards to everyone, make up flyers and drop them off at local business's, Take good care of your customers and don't take on more than you are ready to handle...

No Sh**! Thanks for bringing that to my attention, I never even thought about just going out and spending 10 or 20 thousand and starting out with the best equipment available.
How many of you had the money and just went out and bought the best commercial equipment in your first year. If you did good for you, I just am not as fortunate as you were money wise.
YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE! So get of my butt for not buying things I dont have the money for.
Thanks for all the advice.

No one started with 20k in equipment. We all bought used! I started with a $100 trailer frame, $800 truck and a 44" toro walk behind that I bought for $300. The only thing that I still have is that mower.

I have a whole basement full of weedwackers, handheld blowers, that are worthless because the names on them.

When you buy something knowing you have to replace its a waste of money. I did it with several things thinking I only need it for this job or a few months.

If you have good enough credit for a lowes card. You have good enough credit to get dealer financing or a regular credit card.

You had options. You couldve used your lowes card for the trailer. You couldve bartered with someone that needed something at lowes. ie: Trade $1000 in lumber for $1000 in cash.

Everything in this picture was $2600. Thats both zero turns, trailer and the honda. I ran them hard and never had a problem. Ill put either one of these mowers against yours and will still be running them in 5 years. When its all said and done we paid the same.

This is the first time I have been on this forum in a few months, I have been busy with family health issues and work. I suggest looking at what a local dealer can offer before you buy at a box store. With a residential unit you WILL need parts. And guess what a dealer is more likely to stock parts for something that he sells then he is for a unit he does not sell. Also last year the companies got a little more competitive. I have a Hustler ZTR that has a fab deck and a Kawasaki engine in my store that is more then $200 less then the local home depot and better quality. I also have financing as well, your local dealers might be able to do better then you think.

Having said that I have 5 new walk behind mowers that I paid about $600.00 total for. I bought the Husqvarana RZ 5426 on credit at Lowes because thats the only credit source I have right now. I purchased 2 new Echo SRM 225 line trimmers off of E-Bay, one for $129 and one for $159. I also bought 2 new Husqvarna 125 B leaf blowers for $79.00 each.

5 push mowers that's a lot. How many are going to be in your crew? My first year I had one push mower, trimmer & hand held blower. If something broke I ran to home depot and got a new one then fixed the other one and had a back up

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg'slawnandlandscape

If u get the optional lowes warrenty they will warrenty it for commercial use and there is no hour meter limit on all machines I bought mine in may and I did all the research on it (including warrenty specifications)

just have a backup mower because they are known for being slow (4+ weeks)

Thanks to everyone for the great advice and ideas. I went off on a tangent the other day and want to appologize for that. I know everyone on this forum is trying to help each other out. I got frustrated about my limited resources and vented a lot more than I should have.
to willshome; I am the only one right now. Ill be doing 20 to 30 a week by myself if I can keep up. I plan on hiring one helper when I get over 30 accounts. Ill need to get to 40 to 50 quickly or Ill start losing money after I hire someone. As far as the mowers I bought; 3 of them are listed on Craigslist right now. I plan to take the proceeds from those sales and buy a good walk behind comm. mower. The other 2 are Residential Toros. I hope they will hold up for a couple of seasons. The Z-Turn Husvarna I bought isnt going to be getting used as much as the walk behinds as most of the account Ive lined up so far are smaller residential properties. (Some people also dont want a riding mower on thier lawn) So I let them know Ill have to charge extra because the job will take longer. So far so good. I havent even sent out a flyer or any advertising yet and Ive got 17 accounts lined up from word of mouth.
To SelectLandscaping; You sound like a very resoursefull guy. I to am very frugile and am always looking for ways to get the most for the least amount of money. Thanks for those ideas.
To Wandfsmall: My credit took a nose dive last year when I applied for to many CC accounts. I kept getting turned down and with a score of around 740 I didnt understand what the problem was. I always pay on time and have never had a re-po, charge off or anything. I got copies of my credit reports and found that since the accounts I do have were all about maxed out and since I had been calling around trying to get credit my score dropped to about 650. So Im afraid to do anything except pay my bills right now and not apply for anything for a while.
Personally, I hate Credit Cards and the whole system. But in todays world if you dont have good credit your screwed. Even if you dont need to use your credit you need to have a good rating to be able to do anything. Everyone in business looks at you and judges you based partially on your credit worthiness.
Once again, my appologies for offending anyone with my previous thread. I was having a crap day and everywhere I turned I was running into a brick wall. Thats no excuse but its the truth
I hope everyone has a safe and profitable year this season.

When you say most lawns the zero turn will not work what do you mean like 60% or more like 95% ? Because maybe you don't need one right away, i didn't. You could save a lot of money if you wait. I don't buy any tool if it won't pay for it self in one year

When you say most lawns the zero turn will not work what do you mean like 60% or more like 95% ? Because maybe you don't need one right away, i didn't. You could save a lot of money if you wait. I don't buy any tool if it won't pay for it self in one year

P.s. Welcome back

if you are at a point to having to hire somone or buy even a cheep zt buy the zt it will save you time, time is more accounts more ac****s is more money. I had the same issue last summer 77 lawns and not enough time hired a green guy and my days got longer not shorter like you would think. I bought a 36" ferris evolution and cut about 4 hours off my day fired green guy. For example on friday I do 28 duplexes front and back to mow edge and blow buy myself it used to take 6 hrs with a new hire i had him mow the back lawns and i would edge the front and back and mow the front it still took 5 hrs and i was paying him 10 an hr with the ferris i can do it myself in 4 hrs and dont need the other guy so equation ferris payment $200 a month second guy 3 days a week $800 a month you tell me wich makes more money in you pocket. Buy the zt